JUST IN: North-East Governors Forum Elect Zulum Chairman

Governor Babagana Zulum of Borno State has been elected as the pioneer Chairman of the North-East Governors Forum.

Naija News reports that the Borno governor will hold the position for a period of two years.

This was made known in a communique issued at the end of the forum’s second meeting, which held in Maiduguri on Saturday and signed by the Forum’s Chairman and governor of Borno, Zulum.

According to the communique, the meeting was attended by governors of Adamawa- Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri, Gombe- Mohammed Inuwa Yahaya, Borno- Prof. Babagana Umara Zulum, Bauchi- Sen. Bala Mohammed, Deputy Governors of Taraba- Engr Haruna Manu and Yobe, Idi Barde Gubana.

The governors also agreed to make Maiduguri headquarters of their forum.

The North-East governors’ forum also urged President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration to deploy more state of the art military hardware in the armed forces fighting the Boko Haram in the region.

The group called on the Federal Ministry of Water Resources to ensure that attention was given to recharging the Lake Chad from national water bodies and strengthening the river basins in the sub-region.

The communique, however, called on the Federal Government to revoke selected road contracts awarded by the Federal Ministry of Works for years without progress and re-award the same to more competent contractors with funding to ensure timely execution.

“The Forum affirmed its commitment to support the Federal Government agenda of transforming the Almajiri system with a view to strengthening both Islamic and western education as well as stopping street begging and prevalence of out of school children in the region as agreed by the Northern governors,” it said.